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May 15, 2018/Best Practices/By Streamline Marketing

How to Pitch Your Brand to Social Media Influencers

Influencers receive an inbox full of brand pitches, making it hard for brands to stand out if they aren’t already on the radar for a coveted collaboration. To combat falling into the inbox abyss, Streamline has discovered a few helpful tactics to increase the open rate when pitching to influencers.

Below are four simple ways to successfully pitch a brand partnership or collaboration to social media influencers.

1. Be personal

It’s probably obvious, but start off by using the influencer’s first name. This will help make the pitch immediately feel less like a mass email that they were just BCC’d on.

Include a specific tidbit about their site or Instagram account that has value or specifically aligns with the brand. For example: “I love the beautiful content you are creating and sharing on your blog, especially your commitment to cruelty-free beauty!”

This illustrates to the influencer that the pitched brand has taken the time to understand their brand and value their content.

2. Add value

Clearly present the influencer with an understanding of how working with the brand will benefit them, rather than focusing on the brand’s needs. Brands must make it easy for them to say “Yes!” to developing a partnership–whether it’s for a single opportunity or a long-tail play.

For example, will the partnership or collaboration provide the influencer with an opportunity to grow their reach? Will they be the first to receive a hot new product? Or maybe the brand in question is one that they can be the first to promote and grow with.

3. Express urgency

To increase the likelihood of receiving a quicker response, or a response at all, we have found it helpful to express a timeline or deadline.

For example: “We would love to get our new product in your hands for a review by the end of the week. Can you please send us your address by the end of today?”

4. Make partnership easy

The combined land of performance marketing and influencer marketing can be a confusing landscape. It is important to concisely explain what network the influencer needs to join for their performance to be tracked and payout received. Keep this information to one sentence and make it easy for the influencer to join by including a direct sign-up link. Typically, we explain that joining the network is the first step to starting the partnership and that it should be quick and easy, but we are always happy to assist with the network setup process.

In a nutshell, be personable, incentivizing, and concise. Now you’re set to go win some influencer partnerships! Once the conversation is started, that is just the beginning. For help with executing a full-blown social media influencer strategy, tracked through the partner channel, ask for more details at info@streamline-marketing.com.